History of the Martin Luther King Assassination

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it was warmer than normal on April 3rd, 1968, and a crowd was gathering in

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the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee.

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Two months prior.

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There had been strikes happening in Memphis, yet on this fateful

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Wednesday night, locals had gathered to hear a speech from civil

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rights leaders around the country.

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As one of these leaders stepped up to the podium, the murmurs quieted, and

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the preacher turned activist, gave his thanks to the speaker before him,

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and then this ordained minister said,

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Something is happening in Memphis.

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Something is happening in our world,

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and you know, if I was standing.

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At the beginning of time with the possibility of taking a kind of

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general and panoramic view of the whole of human history up to now,

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and the Almighty said to me, Martin Luther King, which age would you like to live?

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I would go on even to the great heyday of the Roman Empire.

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But I wouldn't stop there.

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I would even come up to the day of the Renaissance.

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But I wouldn't stop there.

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I would come on up even to 1863 and watch a vacillating president by

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the name of Abraham Lincoln finally.

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Come to the conclusion that he had to sign the Emancipation Proclamation,

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but I wouldn't stop there.

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Strangely enough, I would turn to the almighty.

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And say, if you allow me to live just a few years in the second half

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of the 20th century, I will be happy

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Now.

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That's a strange statement to make because the world is all messed up.

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The nation is sick.

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Trouble is in the land.

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Confusion all around.

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That's a strange statement,

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but I know somehow that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars

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The masses of people arising up and wherever they are

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the cry is always the same.

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We want to be free.

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That man was Martin Luther King and that mountaintop speech would be his last.

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Welcome to Talk with History I am your host Scott, here with

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my wife and historian Jen.

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Hello.

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On this podcast, we give you insights to our history inspired world travels

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YouTube channel journey, and examine history through deeper conversations

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with the curious, the explorers, and the history lovers out there.

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Now before we get into our main topic, I wanna list, ask our listeners and watchers

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to give us reviews on Apple Podcasts.

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It really does help us grow we've crossed 10,000 subscribers recently.

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Yes, we have.

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We're already happy about that history channel.

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You better watch out because you know, we just gotta add a

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couple zeros on the end of that.

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Yeah.

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And then.

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Couple more after that to catch.

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We're a threat to catch up to you.

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So just, I keep warning them one day it's gonna happen.

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. Jenn: So today is April 4th

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of the assassination of Dr.

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Martin Luther King.

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That's right.

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In Memphis, Tennessee.

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Now we did a video on it.

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Yes.

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So let's, so why don't we tell our folks about the video and about us

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living out there, and let's give us

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some background here.

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So we did a video.

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A while ago.

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Yeah, it was like over a year ago.

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Over a year ago.

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And I so most people who follow our channel know my master's degree

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was from the University of Memphis.

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So it's hard, I would say you can't even live in Memphis without being

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exposed to the history of Memphis.

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And one of the big things is the assassination of Doc Martha Luther King in

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Memphis, Tennessee at the Lorraine Motel.

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Most people will not even know that he was assassinated in Memphis.

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They'll know he was assassinated, but I don't even think we even knew

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until we moved there that it was in Memphis, Tennessee and there's a whole.

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Story about why he is in Memphis and what's going on in Memphis

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and what the violence is about.

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And we learned all, I learned all of that.

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Yeah.

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And we happened to live there at the time, in 2018 when it was the 50th

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anniversary of his assassination.

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Yeah.

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And

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this was before the channel?

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This was before Walk with History.

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Was even a thing.

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Yeah.

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You know, this was long before that, right?

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You the Yes.

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The history fan.

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And I think you had started your

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graduate work.

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I started my graduate work.

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So that day we had done an unveiling of a marker around Nathan Bedford Forest.

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Yeah.

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There is a marker where his business, his slave trade, his human

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trafficking business was in back of a calvary church in Oh, interesting.

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Memphis, Tennessee.

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Yeah.

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And that marker just.

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It was put up in the sixties and it says, you know, Nathan Bedford

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Forest, the great hero of Memphis.

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Yeah.

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This is where his business was.

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And so on that day, we unveiled another marker to, to be alongside that one.

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Cause we're not gonna take that one down.

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That said, His business was, yeah, slave Trading.

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Trading.

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Oh, interesting.

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People he sold so many people's lives were torn apart.

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Yeah.

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So that's why you were out in that area?

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That's why I was on that area.

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Okay.

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And it was part of the celebration.

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I forgot that.

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And so then after that, I had walked down the street.

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From Calvary Church to the Lorraine Motel, and I got there about four o'clock.

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Martin Luther King was assassinated, 6:01 PM and they were gonna ring the bell.

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They've been gonna put the wreath up.

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So I sit in the lawn, which is right across from the Lorraine

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Motel, and I talked to people and I asked people, why are you here?

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What did Martin Luther King mean to you?

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I just had a lot of questions and I watched it and I filmed

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it and it's on Instagram.

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Yep.

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If you'd like to

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see it right now.

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Yep.

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If I remember correctly, this is one of those things that

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we knew a little bit about.

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But you had learned a pretty significant amount during your graduate

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work, and also just being out there talking to the people out there

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and going through the museum more.

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So walk us

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through that a little bit.

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So why is Dr.

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Martin Luther King in Memphis to begin with?

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He's not from Memphis, he's not buried in Memphis.

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He's buried in Atlanta, Georgia.

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That's where he's from.

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So why is he in Memphis, Tennessee?

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So what is going on?

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And we learned this a lot living there is, it's a very racially

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charged, segregated area.

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Yeah.

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Even today they still feel a lot of that.

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At the time it was definitely Jim Crow.

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Racially segregated.

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And the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King was staying was a black motel.

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So you were separated based on race.

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And the Lorraine Motel was actually like in the Green book,

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like if the actual travel book.

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And it was at na, it was the upscale black motel.

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And we talk about how Nat King Cole stayed there and yeah, Joe Gibson stayed there.

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And so Martin Luther King, when, if he would visit Memphis would stay there.

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And at the time in Memphis, you get a lot of social unrest because the

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sanitation strike is happening in Memphis.

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I didn't even know what that was.

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So what?

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Until I moved to Memphis.

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What was the sanitation strike?

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So what is happening is in February 1st, 1968.

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Two men Ethel Cole and Robert Walker are killed by a garbage

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truck and their garbage workers and garbage trucks are segregated.

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Even garbage workers are segregated where the white workers would drive the

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truck and the black workers had to like, sit in the back where the garbage went.

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Oh, wow.

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And ride along.

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They climbed in the back of the truck cuz it was raining and the

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truck malfunctioned and killed them.

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Pulled them into the truck and killed them.

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Oh geez.

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And that was like enough for the African American workers, sanitation

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workers to say, that's enough.

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We're going on strike.

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Yeah.

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We can't do this.

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It's not safe.

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It's not safe.

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Yeah.

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And it's.

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It wasn't like they were gonna even acknowledge that death

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and the unsafe conditions.

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Not only that, they're not getting paid the same amount, right?

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They're not getting uniforms.

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They're not allowed to have days off.

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They're not allowed to call in sick.

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They're not allowed to come in late.

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Like they're not allow allowed.

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So that was like the last straw.

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It was the last straw.

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So they all worked, walked off the.

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And you can imagine if garbage workers were walking off the

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job in the big city of Memphis.

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Yeah.

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What it's getting like in the city.

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Oh man.

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So they walk off the job February 1st, and so the strike really

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takes place from February 12th.

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And it's gonna end on April 16th.

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So Martin Luther King comes to Memphis in support of this strike

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because it's getting a lot of recognition nationally, right?

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And he comes there in March, the end of March 28th, and he

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wants to have a demonstration.

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What happens is this a lot of.

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High school kids come to this demonstration, oh, and they start to

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get violent and they start to loot.

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And so king leaves because he calls for nonviolent.

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So he leaves, he and a 16 year old kid is killed.

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He is seen carrying a television by a police officer.

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There are reports, he put the television down, the police officer shoots him

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right in the chest and kills him.

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So King doesn't wanna be associated with that, doesn't wanna be

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associated with that death.

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But he just, but he doesn't wanna be a quitter.

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So he wants to come back and finish what he

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started.

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So was this was like, like a week before or just a couple

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days before?

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So it's March 28th.

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Okay.

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And his name was just a couple days.

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Yeah.

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Larry Payne, 16 years old.

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Yeah.

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He's buried April 2nd.

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And you can imagine he gives, I have seen the mountaintop teach April 3rd on

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April 3rd, so he gets there April 3rd.

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Now, the sanitation strike, you might know if you have seen those.

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I am a man posters.

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Those I am a man.

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Posters come from the sanitation strike.

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And this is a way again, of.

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Showing people like we are being segregated, we're being

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treated differently just based on the color of our skin, right?

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We're doing the same job.

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We're both garbage workers.

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We're both laborers.

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We both deserve to be respected.

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And you see a white person in this picture, What the sanitation

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strike gets even through Dr.

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Martin Luther King is a lot of union backing from a around the nation.

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Oh, interesting.

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So you get like the Italian unions.

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Sure.

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You get the Polish Union, they come down because they also feel like if we can

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support this strike it reinforces our

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message.

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Yeah.

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It it reinforces the whole union, a lot of the union mentality.

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Yes.

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Yes.

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Yeah.

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So Martin Luther King comes back to Memphis.

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He had left Memphis.

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Larry Payne was killed.

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He had come back to Memphis.

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He's not a quitter.

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I'm gonna do this non-violent march, but the judge has put an injunction

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on Memphis since that boy was killed.

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There will be no demonstrations.

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So Martin Luther King has come here to meet with the judge

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to get that injunction lifted.

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So on April 3rd, He's in his hotel.

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He's in room with 3 0 6 in the Lorraine Motel, and there was talk that he might

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go to the Church of God in Christ.

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It's not Did, did you say like he wasn't feeling

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well?

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He wasn't.

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And he didn't really wanna go and it was a really rainy, rainy

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night.

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Yeah.

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And I looked it up.

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It actually was like warmer than normal.

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Which your fear in Memphis in the South, that just means

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it was like nice and humid.

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Yeah.

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Summer came

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early.

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Yeah, and it was stormy.

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And it's not close.

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Like you said, if you saw on our video, it's not like they're

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right down the street from each other, you'd have to take a car.

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It's a good mile, two miles away.

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So he gets a call from one of the people at the Church of

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God in Christ, and he's it's.

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Packed.

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Yeah.

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There's 2000 people here.

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There's 2000 people there.

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Yeah.

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And they have braved the storms and they have worn their Sunday best.

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And they are sitting in these seats.

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They're

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fanning themselves.

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So did they know, did they come specifically to see Martin Luther King?

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Was he like the

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headliner essentially?

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Yes.

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They had heard he might come, if he comes to town, he might come here and

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talk.

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That kind of thing.

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He had just tried to.

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Few days prior.

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So they would know that he was in the area?

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Yes.

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Okay.

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So that makes sense.

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So he's okay, I'll come down.

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And what's interesting about the I have seen the mountaintop

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speech and I have seen the speech.

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It is it looks like it's been written quickly and revisioned a lot

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cross down.

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It's actually very good.

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I was reading through it and I quoted it in the intro.

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And I summarized some parts of it just to make it a little bit shorter.

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But it's, he's a fantastic speaker.

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He's a pastor.

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He's a pastor.

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You can tell he knows his craft, right?

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He knows his craft.

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Even just reading it, I was like, oh yeah.

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This is really good.

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I encourage you to go out and take a just Google that.

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I haven't seen the mountaintop speech.

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Cuz even just reading through it, I was like, Man, even just reading

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it.

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This is good.

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It's good.

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And the University of Memphis had it on loan In the library.

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Lobby.

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Yeah.

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So I got to see it and just all the writing and the revisions.

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That's cool.

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But he had a message and he's very good at Ebbing and flowing.

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Yeah.

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With the message.

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So he comes to the Church of God in Christ.

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He delivers, I have seen the mountaintop speech.

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That speech is gonna have so much more impact after he's killed.

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The next day.

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Yeah, the next day.

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Because it's so foreboding.

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Because

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one of his lines is

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You know, I may not get there with you.

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I may not get there with you, but that's okay.

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You know?

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It was crazy.

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Yeah.

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That doesn't matter to me now.

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Like it sounds like he like knew it's.

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Did someone call him ahead of time?

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It's like he, he knew it's eerie.

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It,

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it really is.

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And I remember when I was making the video right, and if, I'm sure

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anybody watching this live stream or anybody that watches his slater has

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probably seen snippets of the speech.

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But go and find, you know, a longer clip of the speech and

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it really just is so powerful.

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Yes.

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When, and especially with the knowledge now.

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That this is his last speech.

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His last speech.

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Less than 24 hours later, he's going to,

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he's gonna get shot.

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Yeah.

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And I don't think you could deliver a better speech.

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No.

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It's a, it's really is amazing.

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Yeah.

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So the next day they're going to meet with the judge left the injunction.

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They have met with him.

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The judge has been supposed to, Lift it the next day.

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So he would probably do the march on April 5th,

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and he even brings it up in his speech.

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He says things like that, we're not gonna let any injunction stop us.

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Yes.

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Yes.

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So he's there addressing.

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All these things that are going on.

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Yeah.

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He's not there just giving a sermon.

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He's there addressing the strike and the injunction and all the stuff, and

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he's using, if you've l he's talking about the constitution.

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Yep.

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So he's talking about I heard, I read somewhere that you're allowed to protest.

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I read somewhere You're allowed freedom of assembly.

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But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly.

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Somewhere I read the Freedom of Speech.

Martin Luther King Jr.: 00:14:36

Yes, somewhere.

Martin Luther King Jr.: 00:14:37

I read of the Freedom of press somewhere.

Martin Luther King Jr.: 00:14:41

I read that The Greatness of America is the right to protest for right.

Jenn: 00:14:48

So he's definitely like pushing that they're going to have a peaceful protest.

Jenn: 00:14:53

And so the next day, April 4th.

Jenn: 00:14:56

They meet with the judge.

Jenn: 00:14:57

The injunctions supposed to be lifted the next day.

Jenn: 00:15:00

Yep.

Jenn: 00:15:00

And then it's dinner time.

Jenn: 00:15:03

Comes out on the balcony.

Jenn: 00:15:04

He's speaking to a couple gentlemen.

Jenn: 00:15:06

Of course.

Jenn: 00:15:07

You think about it.

Jenn: 00:15:07

He's going to a church for dinner.

Jenn: 00:15:09

The ladies had brought in dinner.

Scott: 00:15:11

So is that, so did he have plans to go out in

Jenn: 00:15:13

That evening?

Jenn: 00:15:14

Yeah, he was, he's speaking to someone in the parking lot telling

Jenn: 00:15:17

them, okay, let's get ready.

Jenn: 00:15:18

We'll go.

Jenn: 00:15:18

And he asks them, make sure they play this hymn that I like.

Jenn: 00:15:22

Make sure the ladies there play this hym.

Jenn: 00:15:24

I really like this.

Jenn: 00:15:24

Interesting, this Hym.

Jenn: 00:15:25

So he's telling them what hymn he wants them to play.

Jenn: 00:15:27

Wow.

Jenn: 00:15:28

And most people don't know.

Jenn: 00:15:30

He actually came out to smoke a cigarette because Martin

Jenn: 00:15:34

Luther King was also a smoker.

Jenn: 00:15:35

Although you don't see many pictures or know that about him.

Jenn: 00:15:37

I don't think I knew that.

Jenn: 00:15:38

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:15:38

So he's out there smoking and he gets shot right through the jugular.

Jenn: 00:15:42

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:15:43

It's almost like a instant wound, but he will, he doesn't die

Jenn: 00:15:47

instantaneously and it's one shot.

Jenn: 00:15:52

And you can see from the picture they point right across if they're, at the time

Jenn: 00:15:56

the Lorraine Motel had a swimming pool.

Jenn: 00:15:58

Yep.

Jenn: 00:15:59

In the parking In a parking lot?

Jenn: 00:16:00

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:16:00

In Woodside.

Jenn: 00:16:01

And there's like an alleyway and there's the boarding house.

Jenn: 00:16:03

And this is an alley, a shared alleyway between the back of the hotel, right?

Jenn: 00:16:06

And the boarding house.

Jenn: 00:16:07

And so they're pointing at the boarding house and James Earl Ray is staying in

Jenn: 00:16:12

that boarding house they're pointing at.

Jenn: 00:16:14

And the bullet shot comes from that little window on the far right and that

Jenn: 00:16:18

is the bathroom of the boarding house.

Jenn: 00:16:21

James Earl Ray's room is basically centered in the boarding house.

Jenn: 00:16:24

There's no windows, but he stakes out in the bathroom.

Jenn: 00:16:28

And watches for King to come out on the balcony.

Jenn: 00:16:30

So he's really prepared.

Jenn: 00:16:33

He's oh, for sure pre-planned.

Jenn: 00:16:34

There's no doubt

Scott: 00:16:35

he's followed his movements.

Scott: 00:16:36

This wasn't by chance.

Jenn: 00:16:37

Wasn't by chance.

Jenn: 00:16:37

He has the rifle.

Jenn: 00:16:39

Now, what's interesting and the things I bring up in the video is that's not, to

Jenn: 00:16:44

me, it doesn't look like an easy shot.

Jenn: 00:16:47

It's a far distance.

Jenn: 00:16:49

It's not like he practiced.

Jenn: 00:16:50

It's

Scott: 00:16:51

a, it's a straight shot.

Scott: 00:16:52

It's a straight shot.

Scott: 00:16:52

It's a straight shot.

Scott: 00:16:53

So for someone who didn't practice, which we find out later that James

Scott: 00:16:57

Earl Ray hadn't been practicing

Jenn: 00:16:58

and he is not known for being a shooter.

Jenn: 00:17:00

It's not like he has a military record like Lee Harvey Oswald,

Jenn: 00:17:02

that he's, it's practice.

Scott: 00:17:03

It's decently.

Scott: 00:17:04

It's decently far, you know, it's not it's like from one building to another

Scott: 00:17:07

and there's a small alley, like he's across the street across a parking

Jenn: 00:17:10

lot, and I'm not think you couldn't make it, but usually

Jenn: 00:17:12

you need a tracking shot.

Jenn: 00:17:14

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:17:14

That's, if you ever saw that movie with Jack Reacher one shot, most

Jenn: 00:17:18

people who shoot need one shot to get a, to figure out, get a, yeah.

Jenn: 00:17:21

A tra a tracking shot.

Jenn: 00:17:22

But Dr.

Jenn: 00:17:23

Martin Luther King is immediately rushed to the hospital.

Jenn: 00:17:25

It's a segregated hospital.

Jenn: 00:17:27

It's, we're St.

Jenn: 00:17:28

Jude stands today.

Jenn: 00:17:29

Oh, I don't think I realize that.

Jenn: 00:17:31

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:17:31

So if you think about it, it's not close.

Jenn: 00:17:33

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:17:34

That's a little ways away.

Jenn: 00:17:34

It's a little ways away.

Jenn: 00:17:35

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:17:36

You have to go across the city.

Jenn: 00:17:37

And then he's declared dead at seven 30.

Jenn: 00:17:40

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:17:40

It's about an hour and a half later.

Jenn: 00:17:43

Now aftermath.

Jenn: 00:17:45

James Earl Ray fires the one shot, throws the rifle onto the bedspread in the room.

Jenn: 00:17:50

He's staying in with all this other evidence that's on the bedspread.

Jenn: 00:17:54

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:17:55

Doesn't he just kinda wrap it up in the bedspread?

Jenn: 00:17:56

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:17:56

He gathers up the bedspread.

Jenn: 00:17:58

Kinda like a hobo, right?

Jenn: 00:17:59

Yep.

Jenn: 00:17:59

Like in your sack.

Jenn: 00:18:01

Throws it over his shoulder, runs out the boarding house, the front door.

Jenn: 00:18:04

So he's not in the alleyway door.

Jenn: 00:18:06

He's across in the front door.

Jenn: 00:18:08

And he sees a police car and it's Not with his lights on or

Jenn: 00:18:11

anything, he just sees a police car.

Jenn: 00:18:12

And so he said he was scared, so he threw everything in the

Jenn: 00:18:16

doorway of the boarding house.

Jenn: 00:18:18

So he just left all the evidence right there.

Jenn: 00:18:19

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:18:20

Fingerprint, everything.

Jenn: 00:18:21

It's all right there for you.

Jenn: 00:18:23

And he hops in his Mustang.

Jenn: 00:18:24

He has a white Mustang, drives it to Canada, able to make it across

Jenn: 00:18:28

to London, and it's in London, that his passport gets flagged and

Jenn: 00:18:32

he's extradited back to Memphis.

Jenn: 00:18:34

So that's a, and I can talk, we'll talk about what happens

Jenn: 00:18:36

to James Earl Ray after that.

Jenn: 00:18:39

King is killed.

Jenn: 00:18:41

The city goes into chaos.

Jenn: 00:18:43

They're not sure what, you know, riots start to happen.

Jenn: 00:18:45

I, this is something else I learned in grad school.

Jenn: 00:18:47

I did not know riots happened across the nation.

Jenn: 00:18:50

I think I forgot that when King was killed.

Jenn: 00:18:51

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:18:52

And so they're very nervous about riots in Memphis.

Jenn: 00:18:54

If you can imagine.

Jenn: 00:18:55

You know, you can imagine.

Jenn: 00:18:56

Sure.

Jenn: 00:18:56

So Coretta Scott King comes to Memphis.

Jenn: 00:18:59

Not only to get his body, but she finishes the march.

Jenn: 00:19:03

The

Scott: 00:19:03

March, that's right.

Scott: 00:19:04

And they do like the peaceful

Jenn: 00:19:05

march.

Jenn: 00:19:06

So they do a silent march.

Jenn: 00:19:07

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:19:08

April 8th.

Jenn: 00:19:08

So if you think of her tracking the dates here.

Jenn: 00:19:11

Larry Payne is buried April 2nd.

Jenn: 00:19:13

I have seen, I have been to the mountaintop.

Jenn: 00:19:16

April 3rd shot, April 4th.

Jenn: 00:19:18

April 8th.

Jenn: 00:19:19

Credit.

Jenn: 00:19:20

Scott's doing the silent march.

Jenn: 00:19:21

Everything's happening.

Jenn: 00:19:22

Good grief, relatively

Scott: 00:19:23

quickly, and they're all within basically the span of a week.

Jenn: 00:19:26

And so 42,000 people come to do that silent march with her, and that's when

Jenn: 00:19:31

you're gonna get like a huge national.

Jenn: 00:19:36

Awareness.

Jenn: 00:19:37

And that's when Memphis is we've gotta end this strike.

Jenn: 00:19:39

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:19:40

So eight days later, the strike has ended, the sanitation

Jenn: 00:19:44

workers are allowed to unionize.

Jenn: 00:19:46

Oh, okay.

Jenn: 00:19:46

The African American and they get increase in wages.

Jenn: 00:19:49

Wow.

Jenn: 00:19:50

So the sanitation strike is over, but it is cost the life of Dr.

Jenn: 00:19:55

Martin Luther King.

Jenn: 00:19:55

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:19:56

So the other things that I talk about in the video,

Jenn: 00:19:59

the plot to Kill King.

Jenn: 00:20:00

And there's a book that I read for grad school called The Plot to Kill

Jenn: 00:20:03

King because I was very much under the assumption, and I'm not a conspiracy

Jenn: 00:20:10

theorist, that it was James Earl Ray.

Jenn: 00:20:12

They have the gun that is kind our have the fingerprint.

Jenn: 00:20:15

We, Lou learned.

Jenn: 00:20:16

Yes.

Jenn: 00:20:16

Growing up.

Jenn: 00:20:16

He comes back to, now he's extradited back to Memphis and in March, so he gets

Jenn: 00:20:21

about, he gets away for almost a year.

Jenn: 00:20:24

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:20:24

He pleads guilty.

Jenn: 00:20:26

He pleads guilty.

Jenn: 00:20:28

He doesn't have to testify.

Jenn: 00:20:29

It's very simple.

Jenn: 00:20:31

99 years in prison and that's it.

Jenn: 00:20:34

It's, that's it.

Jenn: 00:20:35

Gavel.

Jenn: 00:20:35

You're done.

Jenn: 00:20:35

You're in prison.

Jenn: 00:20:36

And then it's two days later he cans and he says, I'm not guilty.

Jenn: 00:20:40

I was a patsy.

Jenn: 00:20:41

I had met this person.

Jenn: 00:20:43

Gives a whole story there.

Jenn: 00:20:44

The king family will visit him.

Jenn: 00:20:46

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:20:46

Get more information from him.

Jenn: 00:20:48

He maintains that for the rest of his life, he'll, he will die in prison.

Jenn: 00:20:52

And so Corretta King will bring a civil suit against the city of

Jenn: 00:20:55

Memphis with some of that evidence.

Jenn: 00:20:57

And one of the things that comes out with that evidence is what I talked

Jenn: 00:21:03

about in the video, that there was a Memphis police officer That's right,

Jenn: 00:21:06

who practiced the entire day before, so April 3rd in the range with the same

Jenn: 00:21:13

type of rifle that was used to kill Dr.

Jenn: 00:21:16

Martin Luther King.

Jenn: 00:21:17

And I was like, when I first read that, I was like, okay, coincidence.

Jenn: 00:21:22

The very next day after the assassination happens, the city comes out and

Jenn: 00:21:29

cleans out all of those bushes and there's a bunch of bushes and garbage

Jenn: 00:21:34

and things back here in the alley.

Jenn: 00:21:35

They have it all cleaned out.

Jenn: 00:21:39

Which is interesting because they're still studying this assassination case.

Jenn: 00:21:43

But here they clean out everything, so you can't even find it.

Jenn: 00:21:46

What if James Earl Ray walked back there and left them footprints?

Jenn: 00:21:49

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:21:49

They just clean it all out.

Jenn: 00:21:51

So that made me go, huh?

Jenn: 00:21:53

Things that make you go, and then, Where I'm pointing here, that

Jenn: 00:21:57

brick building is a fire station and that was a fire station.

Jenn: 00:22:00

Then

Scott: 00:22:00

For those listening, we're showing a video of our

Scott: 00:22:03

Martin Luther King last day's.

Scott: 00:22:05

Yes.

Scott: 00:22:05

Video on the live stream.

Scott: 00:22:07

So if you're listening to the podcast, you know, Go head over to the channel

Scott: 00:22:10

and kind of search for Martin Luther King and you'll find the video.

Scott: 00:22:13

But Jen, I'm, we're showing here the Lorraine Motel, and then right

Scott: 00:22:17

across the street is the boarding house where James Earl Ray was.

Scott: 00:22:20

And then you were pointing out one of the other

Jenn: 00:22:22

buildings, so like diagonal from the Lorraine Motel is a fire station.

Jenn: 00:22:26

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:22:26

And it was a fire station even then in 1968.

Jenn: 00:22:29

And they had sent all the African American firefighters home early that.

Jenn: 00:22:33

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:22:33

They had just said they just not

Scott: 00:22:34

needed.

Scott: 00:22:35

And what was interesting to me, and I think we talked about this

Scott: 00:22:36

in one of our very early podcasts was when you were in grad school.

Scott: 00:22:40

Yes.

Scott: 00:22:40

And in one of your classes in this topic came up and I think you were a lot of the

Scott: 00:22:46

people who lived or grew up in the area.

Scott: 00:22:48

And we're, I think even maybe a little bit younger than you, in grad school you

Scott: 00:22:51

have varying ages, but all of them said,

Scott: 00:22:53

oh yeah.

Scott: 00:22:54

The FBI did it.

Scott: 00:22:55

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:22:56

And I was the one who's it was James Earl Ray.

Jenn: 00:22:58

And

Scott: 00:22:58

everybody just kinda looked to you like you were totally stranger.

Scott: 00:23:00

Like it was totally, don't you know that, it was the FBI or it was law

Jenn: 00:23:04

enforcement or that the other felt I'm surrounded by conspiracy theorists.

Jenn: 00:23:07

But when I read the book, it was very interesting.

Jenn: 00:23:09

It was, and they had documentation.

Jenn: 00:23:12

They had the actual.

Jenn: 00:23:13

Records of the shooting range.

Jenn: 00:23:15

They had the record of them cleaning out the alleyway.

Jenn: 00:23:19

They showed the discharge lists of the firefighters going home.

Jenn: 00:23:23

And the thing that sealed the deal for me Yeah.

Jenn: 00:23:26

Was the coroner.

Jenn: 00:23:28

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:23:28

So the coroner was actually, it's actually the same corner

Jenn: 00:23:31

who declared Elvis Presley dead.

Jenn: 00:23:33

Yeah, that's right.

Jenn: 00:23:33

Was the one who declared Martin Luther King dead and he did

Jenn: 00:23:38

not do bullet trajectory.

Scott: 00:23:40

Yeah.

Scott: 00:23:40

Now and you said to me, That they had done bull trajectory for, was it jfk?

Scott: 00:23:46

Yes.

Scott: 00:23:47

That was four or five years prior.

Scott: 00:23:48

Five years prior.

Scott: 00:23:49

Five years.

Scott: 00:23:50

So the technology was there.

Scott: 00:23:51

Oh yeah.

Scott: 00:23:51

The technique was there.

Scott: 00:23:52

Law enforcement knew how to do that, and they were just like, yeah, we're

Jenn: 00:23:56

not gonna do that.

Jenn: 00:23:57

So you can make an argument.

Jenn: 00:23:59

They didn't do it because of.

Jenn: 00:24:01

Social norms.

Jenn: 00:24:02

Sure.

Jenn: 00:24:02

The this corner is white.

Jenn: 00:24:04

Yep.

Jenn: 00:24:04

And he probably doesn't what, maybe he doesn't think the person is, the

Jenn: 00:24:07

Martin Luther King was substantial.

Jenn: 00:24:09

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:24:09

To do that kind of research on that could be an argument, especially

Jenn: 00:24:12

in Memphis, Tennessee in 1968.

Jenn: 00:24:14

But it's not like the.

Jenn: 00:24:16

The process wasn't there.

Jenn: 00:24:17

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:24:17

It, and almost if you wanted to practice it or try it also too, if you wanted to

Jenn: 00:24:23

prove the case for James Earl Ray, it would've been a great thing to testify.

Jenn: 00:24:27

Sure.

Jenn: 00:24:27

With.

Jenn: 00:24:28

So trajectory is never done and trajectory is never done.

Jenn: 00:24:32

To a point that it almost was like when I read how he stitched

Jenn: 00:24:35

him up, it was as if he.

Jenn: 00:24:38

Sabotage the evidence.

Jenn: 00:24:41

And I just thought this was very interesting.

Jenn: 00:24:43

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:24:43

So that to me was like the turning point.

Jenn: 00:24:45

I was like, this is there's too much smoke.

Jenn: 00:24:47

Too much, right?

Jenn: 00:24:48

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:24:49

So when Coretta Scott King brings that civil suit against the city of

Jenn: 00:24:51

Memphis in 1999 Ray was scapegoat.

Jenn: 00:24:55

And that's what they Argue.

Jenn: 00:24:58

She doesn't win the suit, but it gets heard.

Jenn: 00:25:01

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:25:01

And she does get APO an apology from the city of Memphis.

Jenn: 00:25:04

Oh, wow.

Scott: 00:25:04

One of those things, again, for us living in Memphis for three

Scott: 00:25:08

years, , I think you mentioned it earlier there's echoes of a lot

Scott: 00:25:12

of that stuff that happened then.

Scott: 00:25:13

I wouldn't call it I'd say they're actually more in tune socially nowadays.

Scott: 00:25:18

When we were living there in Memphis about being cognizant of that kind of stuff.

Scott: 00:25:22

. I actually felt like when we lived there from 2016 to 2019 the local, community

Scott: 00:25:28

leaned into that and they acknowledged and said, Hey, we wanna make sure

Scott: 00:25:32

we're not doing things like that.

Scott: 00:25:34

And I, but there were, there, there were those echoes.

Scott: 00:25:36

This were echoes.

Scott: 00:25:37

I,

Jenn: 00:25:37

I, this was very different for someone.

Jenn: 00:25:39

I got different reactions.

Jenn: 00:25:40

You remember when I wanted to go there?

Jenn: 00:25:42

When we first moved there?

Jenn: 00:25:43

I said, I wanna go to the Lorraine Motel.

Jenn: 00:25:45

It's the anniversary of Martin Luther King.

Jenn: 00:25:47

And someone said to me, oh honey, that's not for you.

Scott: 00:25:50

And that's one of the things, again, we've talked about this on the

Scott: 00:25:53

podcast before, is growing up in the area.

Scott: 00:25:57

People are gonna learn and learn things through a very different

Scott: 00:26:00

lens than what you and I did.

Scott: 00:26:02

Absolutely.

Scott: 00:26:02

Me growing up in California Yes.

Scott: 00:26:04

My entire life.

Scott: 00:26:05

And you growing up, you know, primarily on the East Coast.

Scott: 00:26:09

We just learned it very differently and the norms for us were very different.

Scott: 00:26:12

And for me, when I moved to Memphis was the first time I

Scott: 00:26:15

ever felt like, oh my gosh.

Scott: 00:26:16

You know, California is much more of a melting pot.

Scott: 00:26:19

You know, the local population in Memphis, Tennessee is very black and white.

Scott: 00:26:22

Yes.

Scott: 00:26:23

You know, as, as far as just percentages

Jenn: 00:26:25

go.

Jenn: 00:26:25

Yes.

Jenn: 00:26:26

And like you said, we both learned the Martin Luther King was assassinated, but

Jenn: 00:26:31

that's pretty much where it ended for me.

Jenn: 00:26:33

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:26:33

No city, no

Scott: 00:26:34

context.

Scott: 00:26:35

And you gimme a list of names.

Scott: 00:26:36

I could have pointed out James Earl Ray as the one who got, arrested.

Jenn: 00:26:39

Yes, but I could not have told you it was Memphis,

Jenn: 00:26:42

Tennessee before moving there.

Scott: 00:26:43

Yeah I don't think I could have either.

Scott: 00:26:45

So again, thank you for folks jumping on this kind of ad

Scott: 00:26:48

hoc, off the cuff livestream.

Scott: 00:26:50

And for those listening, thank you for listening to the Talk With History

Scott: 00:26:53

podcast and please reach out to us.

Scott: 00:26:55

Website talk with history.com.

Scott: 00:26:57

But more importantly, if you know someone else that might enjoy this

Scott: 00:27:00

podcast, please share it with them, especially if you think today's topic

Scott: 00:27:03

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Scott: 00:27:06

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Scott: 00:27:10

We'll talk to you next time.